- Success Stories
- Environmental Resource Assessment & Management
More Than 1,600 Great Lakes Water Samples Analyzed
More than 30 million people rely on the Great Lakes for drinking water, and they support a fisheries industry valued at $5.1 billion annually. Monitoring the Lakes’ water chemistry is a vital part of maintaining the quality of this key natural resource.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for collecting and testing water samples in each of the five Great Lakes as part of a long-term monitoring project. The agency’s staff collected more than 600 samples in 2024 followed by more than 1,000 in 2025. Through our contract with the U.S. EPA Great Lakes Program Office, CSS employee owners are responsible for analyzing these water samples for nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. In excess, these nutrients degrade water quality and are known to lead to harmful algal blooms in certain areas of the Lakes.
Data from these analyses are used to support evaluations of Great Lakes’ water quality. Learn more about testing water quality in the Great Lakes.
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Fire Detection Support
CSS provides fire detection support to the Atmospheric Science and Technology Applications team with NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Services. CSS Surface Characteristics Scientist serves on the Fire Emissions and Fire Detection teams, providing data manipulation, algorithm development, and performance evaluation for the system. This ensures fast and reliable satellite data to stakeholders,…
Planning, Preparing for, and Participating in a Major Partner Workshop
The Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities (MDBC) team with NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science attended a team meeting at the Wicker Center in Gulfport, Mississippi. CSS employee owners supporting this team (as part of our joint venture with RPI) participated in the meeting January 26-29. The objective of this workshop was for project managers, advisors, and partners to discuss 2025 accomplishments and plan next steps for 2026 and…
Expanding Our Offshore Wind Team
We’ve recently added several staff to bolster the offshore wind team at NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science. With this full team of 13, our employee owners are able to provide more focused support in their areas of expertise, including mapping and spatial modeling, data collection, communications, project management, and partner engagement. Through this…